


Second Chances

by Fogfire



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 11:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16449470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fogfire/pseuds/Fogfire





	Second Chances

New York

She’s there again, in that place she can’t happen to forget. The light is all wrong in her dream, not a cool blue-ish glow but an unsettling red and it gives Loki’s pale complexion an eerie look as he smiles at her through the barrier of glass. She shivers and hears herself talk.

“I want to know what you’ve done to Agent Barton.”

“I would say I’ve expanded his mind.”

Their voices are low, calm even as if they’re chatting about cake recipes while sipping tea.

Even after years and years of playing it cool, of tricks and maneuvers, it never gets old, it never gets less complicated to act so nonchalantly that you believe it yourself.

“And once you’ve won, once you’re king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?”

“Oh…” Loki’s amusement is audible, “Is this love, Agent Romanoff?”

“Love is for children,” she declares, “I owe him a debt.”

She wakes up, takes one shuttering breath before she freezes, ears perched to hear everything.

The wooden floor makes a creaking sound as someone moves outside her bedroom door. That must have woken her up.

“Nat?” Clint’s voice is low and raspy, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she answers, “Did you just come home?”

He pauses, takes a breath and releases it. “Maybe?”

She chuckles. “Go to bed.”

She hears him leave but stays awake, unable to relax now that the dream is fresh and vivid in her mind.

She allows her mind to follow, examine the dream and look at her memory with the calm eyes of a logical mind.

And then she gets up, slips out of her bedroom and into the other one.

“How was the date, Clint?” She asks and he groans and rolls over in bed.

“She was nice,” he mumbles and swats at her cold feet as she slips into the spot next to him, “But, you know…”

“Nice is not enough?”

“Would you settle for nice?” He asks her and she shakes her head with another chuckle.

“There’s still Divya from Accounting. And Sorinah from HR mentioned that she likes dogs. And…”

“Nat,” he interrupts her, “You don’t have to find a girlfriend for me.”

She snorts, deflecting his serious tone easily, “Like you would find one by yourself.”

“Well, maybe I won’t, but that’s on me then, okay? It’s nice that you’re thinking of me, but it’s not a duty or something like that.”

“I’m good at it,” she reminds him, “Remember Steve?”

“Well, I think he would beg to differ. You didn’t do that much.”

“I did-”

“Nat,” he interrupts her, his voice soft but firm. It’s dark and she can hardly see him but she knows, just by the tone of his voice, that his lips are set in a thin line, showcasing how serious he is.

“You don’t need to set me up. That’s not your job.”

“I owe you,” she whispers and it’s probably the darkness around her that makes her able to admit it.

Clint takes a deep breath and pushes it out with a sigh.

“No, you don’t.”

“I do,” she argues and he must have sensed that they could be going back and forth for hours because he stops and takes a different route.

“What I did for you can’t be paid back directly. You have to give it to someone else.”

He waits for her to interrupt but she’s at a loss for words for a moment and he speaks up again.

“I didn’t do much. It’s not like I convinced you to be a better person or something like that. I just saw that you wanted a second chance, a chance to turn things around and I made sure you got that. You might not find someone like that in our line of duty, because it’s a rare thing to see, but if you do, you know what to do.”

She sighs too and he chuckles softly.

“Go to sleep now,” he tells her, “I don’t want you cranky in the morning.”

She stretches out beside him, pressing her cold toes into his warm calves and he hisses and swats at her but leaves her be and they fall asleep like that, pressed against each other in that small twin bed.

Natasha doesn’t mention their conversation again and neither does Clint, probably because she leaves him with his awful taste in flirtatious moves and even worse taste in movies.

But she keeps thinking about what he’s said, keeps thinking about the spark he must have seen in her eyes. Would she notice it in someone else? Would she trust her own judgment to make a different call when it’s necessary?

But the days drag on and with them comes one mission after the other until she almost forgets about it, pushes it into the back of her mind because there are more important things to think about. The people she meets don’t want second chances.

And when she meets one that needs it, it’s you…

-


End file.
